Summary
Title: The Losing Battle with Islam
Author: David Selbourne
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 1591023629
Pro:
• Critical of all sides, even as his sympathies clearly lie with one
• Insists that people be held accountable for what they do
Con:
• Even if we understand the reasons for Islamic militancy, where do we go from there?
Description:
• Analysis of the reasons for Islamic militancy and Western reactions
• Argues that the West must do more to defend basic values against Islamic challenges
• Argues that the West has done much to encourage Islamic militancy and terrorism
Book Review
In his book The Losing Battle with Islam, David Selbourne’s primary thesis is that the West has been doing a lousy job in confronting Islamic militancy and the primary reason for this is an abject failure to really understand where it is coming from, why it is so popular, and what it is searching for. Too often, Westerners seek to “understand” the movement without engaging it on both a empathetic and critical level, or they psychologize and dismiss it as some sort of “death cult” unworthy of any sort of engagement.
Both tactics are doomed to failure and their pervasiveness is why Selbourne believes the West is losing its battle with Islam. Because he is critical of both tactics, he is critical of those who are regarded as both on the “left” and the “right” of Western politics, and for this reason it can be difficult to classify Selbourne himself. He is convinced that Western ideologies of liberty and progress are superior to what Islam currently offers, but he is also concerned about the apparent lack of similar confidence on the part of Western politicians and intelligentsia.
Self-criticism and self-reflection are fair, especially in contrast to other belief systems where such principles are all but unheard of; but self-flagellation in the face of murderous forces that would destroy all one holds dear simply isn’t appropriate. Selbourne wants Western leaders to grow some backbone and assert themselves against the unreasonable demands being made by many Islamic leaders.
Selbourne’s balance of criticism and defense of the West is matched in his approach to Islam. He may decry efforts to “understand” the extremists in ways that fail to hold them accountable, but he engages in a detailed analysis to try to understand why they exist, why they are popular, and what they are after. Only by genuinely understanding them might it be possible to counter their actions and reduce their support structures.
Selbourne may be critical of what the extremists do and say, but he is also critical of many things which the West and Israel have done to encourage the growth of extremism — thus, while the extremists may be wrong, they are often responding to genuine grievances and seeking understandable goals of self-determination and cultural independence. This doesn’t mean that the West should give in to their demands, but it does mean that the West should look more critically at its own actions.
Selbourne’s book isn’t going to please everyone and is likely to annoy most people who read it — everyone and every side on the debate comes in for criticism, sometimes rather harshly. Selbourne had great difficulty finding a publisher for this book and eventually he had to give up in Britain and come to America where Prometheus agreed to take it on. We’re fortunate for this and better off for having such a resource available to us.
